Tools

v3.14

25/11/2013 Gameplay Hotfix

Context:Your new Targon overlords have heard your pleas for mercy. Based on your feedback, we’re making a few balance changes before Thanksgiving since we know people want to spend the holidays having fun.

It’s still early in the preseason so we’re avoiding sweeping adjustments before the dust settles. We’re listening closely though and will continue to keep an eye on things.

NOTE: These updates have been made server-side, but may take additional time to update within the game client. You may see old tooltips and old combine costs but their in-game behavior will reflect the changes below.

Fixed a bug where the combine cost was 650 gold instead of 850 (total cost is now back to 3200 gold from 3000)

22/11/2013 Gameplay Hotfix

Context:We know there were a few bugs with the recent launch of preseason and we’re getting hotfixes out as soon as possible. The PBE was instrumental in pointing out these bugs but we didn’t want to jeopardize the preseason launch with last minute fixes.

Things are a little crazy, but this is a time of experimentation! We’re reacting quickly to incoming feedback about the preseason so stay tuned for upcoming news and updates.

Fixed a bug where Olaf could circumvent healthy gameplay AGAIN by dropping a ward after using Undertow to create new axes that both do damage and reduce Undertow’s cooldown

General

General PVP.net Updates

We've fiddled with the client so you can now do things like mass dismiss notifications and suppress notification popups

We've also given the friends list and notifications a makeover, and overhauled the way notifications work significantly

Group Chat's been reworked and will generally perform faster and smoother across the board

Your skin selection will now lock in place a few moments before you enter the loading screen! Previously, you could still flick through your skins up to the last second, only to be met with a friendly “Error: Null” message if you attempted to select a different skin

In-Game UI

Context: Health bars give vital information in-game but become muddled and difficult to read when you and your team are bunched together. We're updating them to deliver important information at a glance while also allowing for instant identification of your champion, your allies and your enemies.

Updated champion health bars

Champion health bars now glow when the character is highlighted

Updated Smite particle, sound and icon

Champions

Summary: We've increased the cast range and reduced the mana cost of Phosphorus Bomb while adding in a new mechanic to the ability so that bombs are now lobbed before exploding instead of instantly damaging an area. We've also reduced Gatling Gun's mana cost and increased Missile Barrage's total attack damage ratio at later levels.

Context: By adding more gameplay depth to Phosphorous Bomb, we can more effectively balance Corki's abilities, especially his mana costs. Historically, Corki was too dependent on his overpowering early game damage, allowing him to abuse his lane opponents and snowball the game. Now that we've addressed that issue, we have room to make him more competitive in the later parts of the game.

Summary: Barrel Roll's cast range has been decreased, but to compensate we've slightly changed the mechanics of the ability. Now, if a player continually presses the hotkey for Barrel Roll just as the barrel reaches its destination, it will immediately explode on arrival. Body Slam now deals full damage to all targets hit and has a longer cooldown that's cut in half whenever Gragas collides with a unit.

Context: We want to reward Gragas for fighting strategically in close combat as opposed to sniping opponents with his barrel. The changes to Body Slam encourage Gragas to get into the fight if he wants to hit his full damage potential and maximize his mobility.

Q - Barrel Roll

Now has a small buffer before the barrel reaches its destination (not when Gragas casts it) where Barrel Roll can be activated again to explode on arrival

Cast range reduced to 950 (from 1100)

E - Body Slam

Now deals full damage to all targets hit (rather than divided amongst them)

Context: Sometimes we want to adjust a champion's overall power without affecting their balance and functionality, we first look for ways to add gameplay and readability for their opponents. In Morgana's case, that means displaying the radius of Soul Shackles to both Morgana and her victims.

R - Soul Shackles

Now displays the leash radius to Morgana and her victims for the duration of the effect

Context: Nasus has received a visual update! By hitting Nasus' sustain in the early levels, we're hoping to tone down his ability to indefinitely stay in lanes by playing passively. Opponents should be able to capitalize on harassing Nasus in the early game if they don't want him to become an unstoppable force in the late game.

Summary: We've changed the mechanics of Javelin Toss so that it now gains bonus “travel” damage only if the ability travels further than Nidalee's human auto attack range. Additionally, we've changed the damage calculations to be based on where the ability was cast from, instead of where Nidalee is when the Javelin hits the target. We’re also reducing Bushwhack’s vision and armor/magic resistance shred duration.

Context: We wanted to clarify that the optimal way to play against AP Nidalee is to get up close and personal in order to limit her poke damage. Bushwhack’s old debuff duration was oppressively long given current game flow, so we shortened it.

Q - Javelin Toss

Now calculates damage based on where the Javelin was initially cast rather than where Nidalee is when the Javelin hits the target

Summary: Boomerang Blade will do less base damage and scales with total attack damage instead of bonus AD. As a tradeoff for stripping some early to midgame power, we're making it so that each target hit by Boomerang Blade will feel it a little more.

Context: In the early game, when Sivir gets slightly ahead with attack damage items, she can deal a large amount of burst damage with just one well-placed Boomerang Blade. This allowed her to shut down her opponents and control the lane. We didn't want to simply nerf all of Sivir's numbers, so we approached her changes with two goals in mind. First, reduce Boomerang Blade's burst damage on a single target during the laning phase and midgame. Second, allow Boomerang Blade to remain strong in AoE situations, especially later in the game, to be more in line with Sivir's strengths.

Summary: We're taking some of the hidden power away from Vayne's Condemn. The targets she condemns will no longer be unable to act at the end of the effect unless she stuns them against a wall. Additionally, we've removed the ability for Vayne to get a free auto attack on her victims while condemning them away.

Context: Similar to our Morgana changes, when we want to reduce some power on a champion without directly reducing their numbers, we first look to introduce more gameplay for opponents or to shave off hidden power. Highly-skilled Vayne players were getting a lot of trading power in lane by landing a free basic attack on a champion after hitting them with Condemn.

E - Condemn

Vayne can no longer queue up a basic attack on a champion after hitting them with Condemn.

Fixed a bug where the target would be briefly unable to act at the end of the effect, even if they did not hit a wall.

Condemn now deals all damage after knocking the target back. Wall hits are now displayed as critical strikes.

Support Champion Changes

Context: We're making changes to the way abilities scale on champions designed for the support role. Our goal is to emphasize utility and protection over damage output and, with more gold flowing to supports, we had to tweak numbers to ensure certain champions didn't become too oppressively powerful.

Summary: We're removing Janna's global passive and making it a local effect while increasing the movement speed bonus. We've also reduced the overall damage of Howling Gale, but it will scale more with ability power the longer it is charged. The active and passive movement speed affecting portions of Zephyr now also scale with ability power. The ability power ratio of Eye of the Storm's shield has been reduced, but it now has the added benefit of providing additional attack damage based on Janna's AP.

Context: We've been saying for a while that we wanted to hit global passives that provide hidden power, and we're using this opportunity to tweak Janna's Tailwind. As for her Tornados, the additional ability power scaling per second means that Janna will need to fully charge her Howling Gale in order to do high damage at end game.

Passive - Tailwind

Tailwind is now local instead of global (800 range)

Tailwind movement speed buff increased to 5% (from 3%)

Q - Howling Gale

Now gains +0.1 Ability Power ratio per second that Howling Gale is charged before release

Summary: Several aspects of Lulu's kit are being adjusted to scale with ability power in this patch. The damage of Pix, Faerie Companion, Glitterlance's minimum slow decay and Whimsy's movement speed boost now all scale with AP. However, we did remove the AP bonus from Whimsy and slightly lowered its base movement speed buff.

Context: As with the other supports, our goal with Lulu is to focus on utility, not damage. The changes that best demonstrate this philosophy are the buffs to Pix, Faerie Companion and Whimsy. These better highlight Lulu's ability to bolster high attack speed allies and grant large speed boosts where needed. With Glitterlance, we wanted to improve her slow as she gained additional ability power, but didn't want to alter her strong base value.

Summary: We've reduced the ability power ratio of Aqua Prison and Tidal Wave but buffed Surging Tides along with Ebb and Flow. The bonus movement speed of Surging Tides and bounce power of Ebb and Flow now both scale with ability power. In fact, with enough AP, subsequent bounces of Ebb and Tide will actually heal and damage more per bounce.

Context: While Nami's general scaling is in a good place, we saw opportunities to add additional utility to her movement speed buffs and debuffs. The most unique change with Nami's AP utility scaling is on Ebb and Flow. Additional AP now improves the power of each bounce and can eventually reach positive values where each bounce is more powerful than the last.

Summary: With new gold flowing into Sona's support coffers, it turns out Crescendo and Hymn of Valor would rock just a little too hard. We've reduced the ability power ratio on both, as well as adjusting the base heal amount of Aria of Perseverance at later ranks. She can still hit the high notes with her Power Chords, though, and we've added an AP ratio that'll allow Sona to scale better into the late game. Finally, the base activated speed boost of Song of Celerity has been slightly reduced, as it now scales its speed bonus with ability power.

Context: Our core focus with Sona is to take some power from her abilities to shift into her Power Chord and her Song of Celerity, which allows Sona's utility to scale into the late game while also ensuring her choice of Power Chord remains relevant at all stages.

Passive - Power Chord

Added a 0.2 Ability Power ratio to the damage of Power Chord – Staccato

Added a 0.02 Ability Power ratio to the damage reduction of Power Chord - Diminuendo

Added a 0.04 Ability Power ratio to the slow amount of Power Chord - Tempo

Summary: Soraka's base health, health per level and base armor are all being increased and she has a new passive that makes her health/mana restoring abilities more effective when the target is missing more health or mana. Starcall now scales its magic resistance shred with ability power and if Soraka hits at least one champion with it, Astral Blessing's cooldown is reduced. Astral Blessing has been changed so its armor buff now scales with ability power. We saw an opportunity to add a new mechanic to Infuse, allowing Soraka to use her own mana as either a donation or for additional damage depending on who she targets. Turns out Wishes should probably not ignore untargetable allies, so now Soraka's ultimate affects everyone on your team.

Context: Our changes are focused on giving Soraka additional utility scaling and rewarding tactical plays in the middle of combat. We also introduced more gameplay to Soraka's kit that promotes that in-combat healing style rather than being a simple health and mana battery.

Base Stats

Base health increased to 405 (was 375)

Health per level increased to 76 (was 71)

Base Armor increased to 9.4 (was 7.4)

NEW Passive - Salvation

NEW: Soraka's health and mana restoring abilities are 1% more effective for each 2% health or mana the target is missing

Summary: We're switching up Taric's passive so after each spell cast, his next auto attack is empowered to deal 30% of Taric's armor as magic damage and reduce the cooldown of his abilities. Imbue's AP ratio is lower and now also scales with a percentage of Taric's bonus health. We've also removed the AP scaling of Shatter as well as lowered its base damage. Shatter now scales even more with armor, and the shred scales with a percentage of Taric's armor. Finally, we've lowered the ability power ratios of Dazzle and Radiance, as well as increased their cooldowns.

Context: Overall we are adding additional depth and skill differentiation to Taric's gameplay through a rework of his passive. Additionally, as a tanky (and fabulous) support that excels in the middle of a team fight, we've introduced more defensive scaling for Taric to further define his intended role.

NEW: Passive - Gemcraft

NEW: After casting a spell, Taric gains a buff that deals 30% of his total Armor as bonus Magic Damage his next auto attack

Passive empowered attacks reduce the cooldown of all abilities by 2 seconds

All items building out of Long Sword have had their combine costs increased to accommodate (all items building out of Long Sword should cost the same)

Context: Because of our changes to the vision system (ward functionality, ward limits and trinkets), we're removing Oracle's Elixir from the game. We'll continue monitoring the vision system changes and make adjustments as needed.

The following items have been removed from the game:

Eleisa's Miracle

Oracle's Elixir

The following items have been remade (see below for details on new items):

Vision

Wards

Context: Support players were often expected to shoulder the warding burden on the map. With these changes, we want to encourage all players on the team to participate in providing vision for their team. We also want to introduce more dynamic gameplay within the vision system and most of our underlying changes reflect this philosophy. You can read more about our changes to the vision system on the microsite.

Context: Gold income for junglers wasn't scaling appropriately for dedicated jungle farmers and jungle difficulty was out of line with what we thought was appropriate. Here we've introduced monster levels that link with jungle difficulty and rewards.

Jungle monsters now have levels

Jungle monster level is based on the average level of the champions in the game when they spawn (equal to the average of all champion levels, rounded up)

Jungle monster level determines their HP / Damage and XP / Gold value

Context: Junglers who fall behind had no opportunity to catch up, so now Jungle monsters grant bonus XP to champions who are lower level than the monster they killed.

Jungle monsters grant 50% bonus XP per level to lower-level champions, up to a cap

Context: With such a wealth of cooldown reduction options available, Crest of the Ancient Golem was causing a greater swing in lane control than we'd like.

Crest of the Ancient Golem ('Blue Buff')

Cooldown Reduction reduced to 10% (from 20%)

Jungle Monster Statistics

Summary: Jungle Monsters have been tuned to better fit the revised items and flow of the game

Map Objectives

Context: To reduce the early snowball effect of Dragon and to give it mid-game comeback value, Dragon now gives global gold and local experience based on its level while also doling out additional bonus experience for champions who are far behind in level. The Dragon level updates constantly, unlike other jungle monsters who level up when they spawn.

Dragon level minimum: 6, maximum: 15

Dragon local XP: 150 to 510 based on Dragon's level, divided between nearby allied Champions

Dragon global Gold: 125 to 260 based on Dragon's level given to all allied Champions

If the killing team is lower average level than their opponents, Dragon grants a bonus XP of +25% per average level difference

Bonus XP is sharply increased for the lowest level members of the team, +15% per number of levels behind Dragon squared (max total +200% extra)

Turrets

Context: Turrets gave equal amounts of global gold when destroyed, despite outer turrets being that's lane's objective. While some of this is beneficial, we don't believe a lane should lose simply because another lane lost their outer turret too early.

Outer turrets now grant 100 global gold per player and 150 gold split among the players who participate in destroying the turret

Inner turrets now grant 125 global gold per player and 100 gold split among the players who participate in destroying the turret

Inhibitor turrets now grant 175 global gold per player

Context: The player experience for last hitting under turrets was inconsistent between high attack damage champions and supports or mages. We've adjusted turret base damage and damage against minions to make last hitting under turrets more consistent across all roles.

Base damage adjusted to match minion health growth

Base damage against minions increased to make last-hitting under turrets consistent

Context: Global experience on the outer towers has led to weird cases in lane, like levelling up other lanes accidentally. We're shifting this global experience to a phase of the game where it'll be more appreciated and less likely to cause odd level ups and snowball advantages.

Outer turrets no longer give 30 global XP when destroyed

Inhibitor turrets now give 100 global XP when destroyed (from 70)

Context: Defending against a split pusher is extremely taxing and ultimately unrewarding. We've made this change to help teams defending against extended periods of split pushing. A successful split push needs to do more than inflict light damage to the tower over time.

Inhibitor turrets gain 15 Health Regen per 5 seconds

Inhibitors

Context: Losing an inhibitor often puts a team behind for a long period of time with few opportunities for retaliation. This was because a downed inhibitor also granted a global buff to minions in all lanes. We want more comeback opportunities for teams who can capitalize on winning teamfights, even with a downed inhibitor.

Inhibitor death timers reduced to 4 minutes (from 5 minutes)

Inhibitors no longer grant a global buff to all minions when destroyed

Inhibitors now grant a stronger damage and durability buff to minions in their specific lane

Context: Early death timers were a little too punishing, especially given the importance of the early game. We've shaved a few seconds from this to help reduce early lane snowballing

Early game death timers now start at 7.5 seconds (from 12) and scale to the same values over the course of the game

Minion Experience

Context: Minions becoming worth more experience over time creates a severe experience discrepancy between champions who can farm and split push late game compared to champions who are forced to siege or participate in objective control. We're removing this discrepancy because it causes the former to spike in levels and gives an unfair advantage. Since this could potentially create some snowballing consequences, we'll be keeping a close eye on this and could make further changes if necessary.

Lane Minions are no longer worth more experience based on game time

Minions still become worth more gold and gain more statistics over time

Lane Minions now have a level equal to the average level of champions in the game

Currently this has no effect on the game but will be expanded upon in the future

Experience Curve

Reduced experience required to level by roughly 10% per level to compensate for the above minion change

Bounty Adjustments

Context: Echoing our above change with early death timers being too punishing at the early game, we've adjusted gold income to better match how games flow.

Kills are worth 60% of the base reward at 2 minutes, scaling to 100% at 4 minutes

Assists are worth 50% of the kill value before 20 minutes and then they linearly increase up to 80% at 35 minutes

Assist Bonus Gold

Context: We're adding an additional reward to players who get a lot of assists. We want these players to feel their contributions to fights, even if they have few opportunities to pick up kills.

If players have 2 more assists than kills they earn 30 additional Gold per assist

Additional assists increase this bonus by 15 Gold, capping at 60 Gold

This gold cannot be more than the original value of the kill

Minion Death Spree Reduction

Context: Single-minded pushing and proxy farming are fairly destructive methods of playing the game, mostly due to the fact that those champions are not accurately valued for their participation in the game.

Every 1000 gold earned from minions / monsters reduces your death spree by 1 death

Masteries

Masteries

Context: We've added a few new masteries! Masteries are a great way for players to tailor their play experience based on the role they want to fill. We want players to feel like they are committing to a playstyle when they invest heavily in a specific tree, so we're revising masteries to scale as the game grows longer and to have more impact for each role.

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